CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 
AND OTHER POEMS 



HAROLD SYMMES 




Class _:PS-35J2. 
GoByright }\° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 
AND OTHER POEMS 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 



AND OTHER POEMS 



BY 



HAROLD SYMMES 




NEW YORK 

DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 

1911 






Copyright, 191 i 
By Mabel Symmes 



THE . PLIMPTON • PRESS 

[ W . D • o] 
NORWOOD • MASS • U • S • A 



©CI.A2hJ)756 



r 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Children of the Shadow 3 

Truants 4 

The Beggar 5 

The Soul of April Sings ' 7 

The Tavern Host ........... 8 

The Blind Girl's Love Song . 11 

Common Clay ../.... 12 

The Winged Dawn 13 

Lord God of Men 14 

Thy Liberator, I 16 

Evanescence . 17 

Wind and Stars 18 

Children of Heaven 19 

To What End? 21 

The Worker 23 

Love's Rhythm 24 

Amor Immortalis ' . . 25 

A Woman 27 

Sympathy 28 

The World Spirit 29 

Wind Echoes 31 

The Desert Soul 32 

From the Hills of Tourmaline 34 

The Roses of thy Love 35 

From the Heart of a Breton Mother 36 

[v] 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Greater Love 37 

Fate and I 38 

The Tryst 39 

A Friend 40 

Starward 41 

Though thy Foe be Unconquerable Death .... 42 

Kings 43 

The Joy of the Road 44 

To the U. S. Cruiser CaUfornia 45 

Fire and Smoke 47 

Who Knows? 49 

One Way 50 

Mother Night >. . . . 51 

As the Winds Will 52 

Alma Mater 53 

The Four Winds 54 

The Child from the Mill 55 

"Mine the Burden" 56 

Desert Sleep 58 

The Calling 59 

The Miracle 60 

Love is a Star 61 

The Mad Singer 62 

The World in its Blindness 64 

The Orient Dawn's First Shadow 65 

Work! 66 

Too Brief the Day 67 

Uncrowned Days 68 

Fellow Faith 69 

[vil 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Earth's Blossoms Die 70 

In God's Wine Press 71 

The Life- Joy 73 

Songs of Yosemite 

A Master Calls 77 

Cloud Mist . 79 

Wild Waters . 80 

Trail Song . 81 

Shadowed Splendor S$ 

Spirit Heights 84 

Seed Drift 

Wealth \ 89 

The Bread and the Wine 89 

Now 90 

^ Christmas Stars 90 

The Leaven 91 

Th^ Sfiark . - . ._ 91 

A Woman to her Hand-Mirror 92 

The Masses 92 

Song-Birth 93 

A Woman Speaks 93 

Vision r 94 

The Martyr . . . r 94 

Maternity 95 

The Life-Love 95 

From the Shadow 96 

No 96 

O Now, my Heart 97 

Dawn 97 

[viil 



HE following magazines have very kindly given per- 
mission to reprint the poems which appeared in 
their pages, and especially is gratitude due to The 
American Magazine J or their many kindnesses and 
constant courtesy: The American Magazine, Put- 
nam's, Youth's Companion, Pearson's, and Sunset. 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

X O an old embowered garden, 
In a sunset-shadowed land, 
Comes each eve a lady strolling, 
With two lilies in her hand. 

Up and down the dim-aisled terrace. 
Where great rose vines clamber wild, 

Walks the lady of the lilies, 

Calling, "Come, dear child, dear child!" 

Years and years I've heard her calling, 

As a plaint of wilding dove. 
Crooning, sighing, soft-imploring, 

Full of grief and mother love. 

Are they children of the shadow. 

Spirits of love's afterglow. 
Babes that once slept on her bosom? 

None but God shall ever know. 

So within life's sunset garden. 
Where heart-yearnings blossom wild, 

Still a mother love is calling. 

Calling, "Come, dear child, dear child!" 

[3] 



TRUANTS 

VyUT of the womb of the earth, 

From a Hfe that is one in all, 
We fare alone from our birth. 

Lured on by the world-siren call, 
We, the sons of the All. 

And truants we speedily prove 
'Neath the spell of ephemeral gain, 

Each man for himself and no love 
For the beggar or brother in pain. 
We, the descendants of Cain. 

Yet, lest we forget our one birth. 

Here is death with our names on a scroll, 

Who leads us all home to the earth. 
To our part in the great living whole, 
We, in our essence one soul. 



[4l 



THE BEGGAR 



A 



BEGGAR, gaunt and broken, empty-eyed, 
An abject wretch, before the Christ enthroned. 
Gazed long upon the Master crucified, 
Then dropped upon the altar stair and moaned: 
"Oh, to live again! 
To hve once more in the world of men! 
Another life, O Christ, unscarred and new, 
Now that I know and have will to do. 
Thou knowst my sins, my heedless ways. 
My foolish errors, faults, and misspent days. 
Mistakes of judgment, acts that stained my youth — 
See, each a rent, a mouth uncouth 
That mocks with shame from out my garment here. 
Have I not paid and paid most dear? — 
I, like midget crushed in the mindless dance 
Of blind and heartless circumstance. 
Is this Thy plan, this endless pain and strife, 
To win our wisdom at the price of life 
And then but die? 
Ah, God, why, why ? 

Show me mercy, pity these repentant tears, 
Forget my broken days, my wasted years, 
And let me live again!" 

Isl 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

He lay a heap of rags upon the stair, 
With anguished sobs his tortured heart was torn. 
Then stillness — the awful stillness after prayer, 
And from its soundless depths this word was born: 
"Outreach with endless faith thine endless strife, 

Its very endlessness is life. 

Out of thy broken days new Hfe is born. 

Thy need of light shall bring the morn. 

E'en to thy starless midnight gloom 

This life were naught, were death its empty doom. 

Beyond perfection life can never be. 

Behold, thy cry means immortality!" 



[6] 



THE SOUL OF APRIL SINGS 

W HITE blossoms star the orange trees, 

And their early coming wakes 
This drowsy drone of honey bees, 
This langorous fragrance on the breeze. 
As perfumed wind from purple seas — 
The sleep of winter breaks. 

The acacia bursts with radiant gold. 

And to the rose vine comes 
A blossoming so manifold 
Its petaled wealth no vine can hold, 
It spreads a snowdrift o'er the mold — 

The heart of April blooms. 

From cedar-top a mocking bird 

His rippling love-song flings, 
Afar a wild dove's call is heard, 
Anear a meadow lark is stirred 
To rouse the world with joyous word — 

The soul of April sings! 



[7l 



THE TAVERN HOST 

W E had journeyed long together, 

Failure, Poverty, and I. 
They had come, unsought companions. 
When my friends all passed me by. 

They had met me on Hfe's highway, 
Where the blinding dust is deep 

And the winding climb toils upward. 
Ever steeper and more steep; 

Touched their caps and called me comrade, 
Said they knew I was a friend, 

Asked me why and where I journeyed. 
Wished they might assistance lend. 

"I seek," I said, "a certain tavern 
That is called the Goal of Life. 
Oh, I weary of this struggle. 

Endless dust and endless strife!" 

"Well we know that famous tavern, — 

Why, a comrade is its host, — 

We know, too, a short road thither. 

Trust to us, you'll not be lost." 

[81 



THE TAVERN HOST 

So we three trudged on together, 

Side by side we slept at night, 
And they left me not a moment 

Till the tavern came in sight. 

Then they laughed and nudged each other 

As they led me to the door 
Of a dark and tomb-Uke cavern. 

Where our footsteps on the floor 

Echoed like three dead men's voices, 

Mocking every act aloud. 
Till a chilling terror wrapped me. 

Like an icy funeral shroud. 

They called the host. He came, stern-visaged. 

"Bring us flagons of the best!" 
They laughed and told him I would pay him, - 

I, his silent, wondering guest. 

Much they drank. At last rose Failure, 
Shouting through his drunken breath, 
"Come, man, fill and drain thy goblet, 

Then pay thy score to our host — Death." 

At this our strange host hastens forward. 
And my friends fall back in fear, 

For he stands a Christ transfigured. 
And from his lips this word we hear: 

l9l 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

"Thrice fourfold he paid his quittance 
Bravely struggling toward my door. 
Here he rests an honored pilgrim, 
Welcome to its every store. 

"Listen! Death is death no longer 
Unto those who bear life's strife; 
Unto those who meet with Failure, 
I am greater. I am LIFE." 



[lo] 



THE BLIND GIRL'S LOVE SONG 



H] 



.E hath come! hath come! 
From outer dark he brings to me 
A sense of light that sings to me, 
That wraps my soul and clings to me, ■ 
My king hath come. 

He hath come ! hath come ! 
From heaven above this boon to me, 
A radiant love as June to me, 
A silver love as moon to me 

In him hath come. 

He hath come ! hath come ! 
His voice bounds all the world for me, 
His kiss has all unfurled for me 
A dawning earth dew-pearled for me, 
Till through his love I see! I seel 

Love's light hath cornel 



In] 



COMMON CLAY 

X HE Master placed within my hand 
A bit of common clay. 
"Of this make thee a life," he said, 
"Fashion it night and day." 

"But this, O Master, is cold earth, 

Insensate dust of death. 
For life I need Thy living fire, 

The flame of stars, the breath 
Of love, of joy, of wild desire. 

Those deathless dawns that light 
The surgent beauty of the day. 

The firmament at night." 

"Have faith in common clay," said He, 
"A mystic force is thine. 
As thou on the world's wheel shape thy clay, 
So shall it grow divine." 



[12] 



THE WINGED DAWN 

J. HE mighty mountain world lies dark in sleep, 
TiU Dawn, as some fair angel, wide outflings 
The rose-meshed pinions of her silent wings 
Along the dreaming east. With gilding sweep 
She mounts to heaven's crown; then, bending low, 
An angel's crimson-lipped kiss bestows 
Upon earth's mountained brow of gleaming snows,— 
A sacramental kiss, for in its glow 
And flush of rose lies all the blood and breath 
Of Dawn. Below, the earth in slumber seems 
To blush and smile, as 'neath the spell of dreams 
That lovers have. Above, in silvern death 
Dawn slowly dies and folds her wings away. 
But earth she kissed to life; for see — 'tis day! 



[13 



LORD GOD OF MEN 



L( 



(ORD God of men, my father's Lord and mine, 
Hark to this cry of the broken, 
List to the stricken plea 
Of one earth-crushed 'neath a burden 
Of pain and pain's misery. 

Give back the strength now ebbing, 

Give back the old life zest, 
The joy of buoyant battle, 

The joy of endless quest. 

Was youth's exultant vigor, 

Youth's promised happiness, 
But granted for this ending 

Of tears and breathlessness? 

Were all my life ambitions 

Mirages of the morn? 
Were all my friends and friendships 

But mocking specters born? 

Was love of woman granted 

To multiply death's pain? — 
Given in perfect glory 

To prove all loving vain? 

[14] 



LORD GOD OF MEN 

Grant strength, O God, I implore it! 

Grant strength to love and hve. 
Give back the blood of courage 

To fight, O Lord, — give, give! 



Lord God of men, my father's Lord and mine, 

Eark not to this cry of me — broken, 

But grant me the light to see 

That here in Thy gift of this weakness 

Is the seed of new strength to me. 



[15] 



THY LIBERATOR, I 

Body 



■A 



prisoner am I. 
No mortal strength on earth can free me, 
My past a galHng chain of weight, 
Each link some fault unfortunate, 
Till here in gyves you see me. 

In endless thrall dwell I." 

Soul 

"Thy liberator, I! 
Thy deathless hope, thy deep desire. 
Thy will that bursts the binding chain, 
Thy faith that, starHke, doth maintain 
The heaven's immortal fire — 

The all-transcendent I!" 



Ii6l 



EVANESCENCE 

JURIED are the morn's dew diamonds, 
Scattered the petaled rose, 
Stilled is the lark's clear music, — 
Where is it their spirit goes? 

Is it that every glory 

Must fade that man may know 

A deeper, richer beauty 

In memory's afterglow? 



[i7l 



WIND AND STARS 

17 ATE came in cloud of crimson flame 
And swept my childhood's home from me. 

The night my only tent became — 
Yet wind and stars did comfort me. 

Fate sent a plague and took my strength, 
My joyous youth and hope from me; 

A stricken exile left at length — 

Still, wind and stars did comfort me. 

'Neath friendship's mask Fate wooed my love, 
Estranged her, heart and soul, from me. 

Bereft, alone, still One above 

Sends wind and stars to comfort me. 



[i8] 



CHILDREN OF HEAVEN 

As spirits of heaven's love, born 
Where the sun embosoms the sea, 

Bodied as mists of the morn, 
And touched with the wind's mystery, 

They rise as great birds in their flight, 
Now winging aloft as in play. 

Now trying their pinions of white, — 
These gleaming cloud-children of day. 

They drift and they dream o'er the sea, 
A fairy-frilled, white-bosomed throng, 

TraiHng in infantile glee 

Their airy toy shadows along. 

Over broad valleys they ride. 

Over proud cities of men. 
Now romping and scattering wide, 

Now coming together again. 

They chng to the slumbering hills, 
They weep o'er a sun-parched plain, 

Till every dry creek runnel fills 
With the song of their silver rain. 

[19I 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

They smile at the sun of their birth, 
As he rides in the high stainless blue, 

They bow to the bare-bosomed earth, 
And a rainbow arches them through. 

On to the pine-purpled heights. 
Where forests in loneliness sleep. 

Where star armies' shimmering lights 
Their faithful night sentinel keep; 

On to the Pass of the Peaks, 

Fearing the storm's chilling breath. 

Huddled, each cloud spirit seeks 
Way through to the Desert of Death. 

Down over gaunt haggard hills, 
Into the desert they crowd, — 

That caldron whose flame ever kills, 
Whose breath is a fiery shroud. 

So melting and fading away. 

Fading and dying each one. 
Pass slowly these children of day, 

Pass back to the soul of the sun. 



[20] 



TO WHAT END? 

I 

V>In drags the wheel of the days, 

Idle and tenantless days. 

Gray time never varies his ways, 

Each day passes just as before, 

Slips by like the sun on the floor, 

And man bitterly questions, "Wherefore, wherefore?" 

Up crawl the life-crushing years. 

Aimless and meaningless years, 

Darkened by dumb spectral fears 

That pain and monotony send 

To watch by the bedside as friend. 

Till life's misery echoes, "What end, what end?" 

II 

Fast whirls the wheel of the days. 
Busying, dizzying days. 
All life is but one blinding blaze, 
Each breath is as never before, 
Each act warms the heart to the core. 
No time to question "Wherefore, wherefore?" 
[21] 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

On whirls man's cycle of years, 
Joyous, all-glorious years, 
For with them come love and love's tears; 
And living and loving now tend 
All days, nights, and decades to blend 
In one paean of joy. And yet — to what end? 
What end? 



[22] 



THE WORKER 

ri E closed his eyes and drank life deep, 
For him the lees spoiled not the wine. 
He asked of God nor seal nor sign, 

Content to sow, content to reap, 
Without one thought of meed divine. 

In sweat of toil he found life's zest, 
The moment's work was mastering lord, 
The long day's call a two-edged sword 

To fight one's way to well-earned rest; 
The joy of work was work's reward, 

*'But why and wherefore? Say, what end 
To all thy ceaseless toil? What lies 
Before, beyond? Why forge new ties 
To earth for Death's fell hand to rend?" 
These his fellows' taunting cries. 

He pondered long. What had God meant? 
He never learned. No sage was he 
To solve God's deep philosophy. 

Once more he toiled in faith content, 
And faith dissolved life's mystery. 

[23] 



LOVE'S RHYTHM 

OECAUSE your heart went singing, 

Mine sang too; 
And straight my life went swinging 
To a rhythmic, joyful ringing, 

Because of you. 

Because your heart must sorrow, 

I grieve too; 
In tears to-day, to-morrow, 
A deeper life I borrow. 

Because of you. 

Because all love in giving 

Bears love anew, 
I greaten in this living 
That hymns the one thanksgiving 

Of loving you. 



24 1 



AMOR IMMORTALIS 



Yi 



EA, Death, thou canst come. 
O withering wind of all this earth-born life, 
O dreaded night, enwombing all to come, 
Dark silent judge of man's rapacious strife, 
Of days of toil and joy Hfe's sum — 
Yea, Death, thou canst come! 

Come, 

And take the treasured husk, 
This clay so worn and lusk. 
One breath and we behold 
This Hfe a crumbling mold. 
Stilled its every fray. 
Thy will no man may stay; — 
And yet one law restrains 
Thy hand. One truth remains: 
I love, am loved. And see 
How this love transfigures me! 
Greater I am than aught 
Thy hand has ever wrought; 
Greater, O Death, than thee 
Or thy fell destiny. 
All else may fade away. 
Thy night enshroud the day, 
E'en stars and worlds unmake, — 
But love thou canst not take. 

[25] 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

O strong-armed reaper of our lesser life, 
O cold-lipped giver of all lives to come, 
Thou mighty silencer of human strife, 
Of earthly gifts alone the sum, — 
Yea, Death, thou canst cornel 



[26] 



A WOMAN 



B 



'Y the sorrow in her eyes 

That mists her sight, 
By the stifled sobs that rise 

In the night, 
By the quiver of her lips, 

Well I know 
Life's one joy has seen eclipse 

In life's woe. 
Yet no sympathy she asks 

Nor grieving brings ; 
Pale, she plies her daily tasks, 

And she sings. 



[27] 



SYMPATHY 

1. LAY on a sufferer's pallet, 
Stricken and bruised and worn; 

Spirit and flesh were broken, 
On wheel of pain were torn. 

I faced the murky midnight. 
My faith submerged by doubt; 

I quailed 'neath endless torture 
Till my soul in revolt cried out: 

"O God, my God, have mercy, 
Make end to this misery!" 
And God himself made answer, 
"I suffer, too, in thee." 

As child at his mother's bosom 
Is kissed and pain forgot, 

I found in God a father. 
And lo, I suffered not. 



[281 



THE WORLD SPIRIT 



I 



AM the dew and the dust, 
I am the dawning day, 
I am the seed that must 
Bud, blossom, and decay. 

I am the wind from the hills, 
The light from the evening star, 

I am the rain that wills 

Green fields where deserts are. 

I am the joy that sings 

In souls that never part, 
I am the grief that wrings 

The tears from a mother's heart. 

I am the law of the earth, 
Its spirit, its life, its breath; 

I am the seed of its birth 
And the seed of its greater death. 

I am the worlds that were 

And the worlds that are yet to be; 
No force will ever defer 

My cosmic destiny. 
[29] 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

Redeeming through love and through strife, 

All things in me rehearse. 
I am the inner Ufe, 

The soul of the universe. 



[30] 



WIND ECHOES 

Jr ULL from the gates of the westering day 

The wind sings a song of the sea, 
Learned where the white-fanged billows play 

In restless immensity. 

Far on the mountain's precipitous height 

The pines feel the breath of the sea, 
And sing to the stars of a cloudless night 

Their deep ocean harmony. 

Had these faltering words but the wings of the wind, 
How they'd rise in their flight unto thee! 

And, whispering echoes in spirit and kind, 
Sing the songs in the heart of me. 



I31I 



THE DESERT SOUL 

1 HE great city babbled its lying word, 
His brothers proved thieves, his own sister erred. 
Embittered, he turned from its sordid strife, 
Agnostic, he cursed them, cursed all Ufa, 
And wandered alone to the desert's rim. 
Its kingdom of death was a balm to him, 
His hatred of life seemed to find its aim 
In this heartless, merciless, withering flame. 
And there 'neath a limitless, blue burning dome 
He built him a hovel and called it home. 

Then slowly a change o'er his soul was wrought. 

He dwelt there alone, yet alone he was not, — 

Some being, some power far greater than he. 

Lay hid in this infinite mystery; 

And lo, from the depths of that solitude 

Was born a new spirit of brotherhood. 

He loved its mirages, its quick-shifting sands. 

The sun-dying glow o'er the barren lands. 

The dawn's saffron fires, the wind storm's mist, 

The night's veiHng shadows of amethyst. 

He felt he was nothing, an atom of soul. 

And yet he was part of that living whole. 

His breath became one with the desert's breath, 

[32] 



THE DESERT SOUL 

A life he attained from this womb of death, 

A life that blossomed like Aaron's rod, 

For he found here the Infinite, found here his God. 

Here, where death reigns 'neath a pitiless sun. 

He knew that Life, Death, and God are all one. 



[33] 



FROM THE HILLS OF TOURMALINE 

r ROM the hills of tourmaline, 
Where the skies are sapphire sheen, 
Where the earth has piled her treasure — 
Bloodstones, beryl without measure, 
Turquoise holding heaven's azure. 
Hyacinth and emerald green; 

From the hills of tourmaline, 
Where the days are opaline, 
Where the dawn's beams never tire 
Of touching aU with sunrise fire 
To make one gem worth love's desire, 
A living soul incarnadine; 

From these hills of tourmaline. 

Where deep-hued garnets almandine 

Dartle rays of beauty fleeting, 

All — aU these jewels in one thought meeting, 

I send you here a lover's greeting, — 

From my hills of tourmaline. 



[34I 



THE ROSES OF THY LOVE 



G< 



rONE are the roses you gave me, 
Fallen and withered and dead, 
And yet they still live in their message, 
Though their color and fragrance are fled. 

For while they drooped and were dying, 
A sun ray from some heaven came 

And touched every rose crimson petal 
Till it leapt into rose crimson flame. 

E'en so is my gift and the giver 

Transfigured, as though from above. 

By the Ught of thy thought and thy bringing, 
By the rose crimson flame of thy love. 



35] 



FROM THE HEART OF A BRETON MOTHER 
Vy THOU treacherous, passionate sea! 



Insatiable, hungry-mouthed sea! 

Thy thousand tongues calling, 

Each wild child enthralling, 
Thou hast lured from my arms all my fair and my brave. 

Wild treasure tales bringing. 

False siren songs singing. 
Thou hast borne them away on thy merciless wave. 

Thou temptress at suing. 

Thou harlot at wooing, 
To call one and all to thy bridal-bed grave, 

Hath thy heart no compassion 

For a soul that is ashen? 
Wilt thou hear this mad mother in tears ever rave? 

Thou dripping-jawed monster, 

See, see how life haunts her 
In the ghosts of the seven dead children she gave! 

Thou hast left this world black for me — 

Give, give my dead back to me ! 
Ah, grant the cold kiss that my withered lips crave. 

O thou treacherous, passionate sea! 
Insatiable, hungry-mouthed sea ! 

[36] 



THE GREATER LOVE 

1T.E stood as some Apollo crowned 
In strength of limb and grace of head. 

His beauty was a thrall that bound, 
His beauty was her wine and bread. 
''All love in beauty lies," she said. 

She bowed before that man's desire, 
The gifts love asked were not denied ; 

Her life flamed up with all that fire 
That first love grants in greatest tide. 
"Ah, love is joy, all joy !" she cried. 

A child lay ill upon her breast, 
She felt in fear Ufe's lessening ties, 

Uprose and labored without rest, 
And then she knew wherein love lies: 
Her greatest love was sacrifice. 



I37l 



FATE AND I 

1 HINE the fault, not mine!" I cried, 

Brooding bitterly; 
And Fate looked grim and once again 

Closed in and grappled me. 

"Mine, not thine, the fault," I said, 
Discerning verity; 
And Fate arose and clasped my hand 
And made a man of me. 



[38I 



THE TRYST 



G( 



rONE — he is gone! 
And here I stand and watch his moonlit way, 
As if this silent silver thread might lead him back to me. 
Gone, engulfed by that last hungry shadow 
Where the tapering pines blot out the trail. 
Gone — and yet, how he lives within me still! 

He lives, he lives! 

'Tis he, this breath of God that steals across my soul, 

This surgiQg joy that floods my frightened heart, 

This warm soft touch upon my brow and hair, 

This burning chrism of love divine 

That lives as nectar on my lips. 

'Tis he! 'Tis he! 

Gone — and yet he still abides with me! 



39] 



A FRIEND 



Hi 



. E shared his every pleasure, 
Gave all great-heartedly; 
And yet I felt some treasure 
Was still denied to me — 

Something I could not borrow; 

Something he would not lend; 
Until he shared his sorrow. 

Then — then he was a friend. 



[40I 



STARWARD 



D] 



'ESPAIR? 
How can a deathless soul despair? 
Though measureless thy depths of woe, 
Though never yet man fell so low, 
There still remains one breath for prayer, 
The will to strive, to rise again, 
To purge thy stain before all men, 
To reach star heights though still ye plod. 
Then, brother, Hst and place belief in this, 
Though unbelievable : 
No ill stands irremediable, 
No sin stands irretrievable 
Before the eyes of God. 



l4il 



THOUGH THY FOE BE UNCONQUERABLE 
DEATH 

V IGHT, though the whole world oppose thee. 
Fight, though the grim heartless strife 
Withhold the one crown that it owes thee, 
The joy that might laurel thy life. 
Yet fight! 

In the sting of the taking and giving, 
In the blood that oft blindeth thy sight, 
In the rising through failure lies living, 
The living that triumphs through fight. 
So fight! 

Fight, though each dawn grow no brighter, 
And, fallen, the end summoneth. 
For a victory lies for the fighter 
Beyond the cold glory of death. 

Then fight, fight, ;^g/if/ 



[42] 



KINGS 



Y, 



EA, all this world thy kingdom is, 
And thou thyself its crowned king. 
Are not seas, stars, and peoples his 
Whose soul is royal in conquering? 

Thy mind and soul stand limitless, 
In thee the kingly greatness lies. 

As thou thy part, just more or less, 
Of this vast life can realize. 

Then know thy world and thou shalt see 
That worlds on worlds are ever thine, 

And know thyself and it shall be 
To thee a heritage divine. 

Take, take with eager, hungry hand 
The greater life the mind can bring. 

Take, take, and thou shalt understand 
That thou thyself art king! 



[43] 



THE JOY OF THE ROAD 



O 



H, the joy of the road, the joy of the road! 
Wild joy of tramping free! 

A windy sky, — 

Great clouds scud by, 
And the joy of the world's in me! 

Oh, my road is aflame with the joy of the dawn ! 
It glows with the gold of noon 

And leads at night 

Through shadowed light 
To the heart of the argent moon. 

Oh, I know not where my road began, 
Its end no man can see; 

Enough, there's sun 

And a song begun 
And this joy of the road in me ! 



[44 1 



TO THE U. S. CRUISER CALIFORNIA 



G( 



rODSPEED our namesake cruiser, 
Godspeed till the echoes cease ! 
'Fore all may the nation choose her 
To speak her will for peace ; 

That she in the hour of battle 
Her western fangs may show, 

That from her broadsides' rattle 
A listening world may know — 

She's more than a fighting vessel, 
More than mere moving steel, 

More than a hull to wrestle 
With the currents at her keel; 

That she bodies a living spirit, 

The spirit of a state, 
A people's strength and merit. 

Their hope, their love, their fate. 

She bodies their soul of fire 
For justice, truth, and right, 

And speaks their fierce desire 
When God decrees to fight. 

[45] 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

She carries their adoration 

Where'er o'er seas she fares, 
The love and pride of the nation 

Whose sacred name she bears. 

May the war gods ne'er refuse her 
First place in the battle's van. 

Godspeed our namesake cruiser, 
Godspeed her every man! 

(Read at the presentation of the State's silver service to the 
cruiser California on May 8, 1908.) 



[46] 



FIRE AND SMOKE 

v>Ih, the pungent odor of burning brush! 
How all my youth in one uprush 
Is conjured back by the fragrant leaves 
Of pine and eucalyptus trees ! 

A barefoot boy in a wonder world, 
Where fire dragons lie encurled 
In the gardener's flames that hiss and dance 
And die at the thrust of my wooden lance; 

Or, Crusoe-like, on desert isle 
I touch my match to a sea-drift pile. 
To thwart the murderous cannibal 
Of a toothsome small boy festival. 

Stealing into the vacant lot 
We roast potatoes, piping hot. 
Black as coals, hard at the core — 
But oh, the savory taste they bore! 

Desperate now, as buccaneer, 
We overhaul a privateer, 
Drag off its treasure chest with toil, 
And by our fire divide the spoil. 

[47] 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

And when we tire of that romance, 
Like Indians ringed around in dance, 
We vault the coals with whooping note, 
With tear-filled eyes and choking throat, 

Making more real the wild refrain, 
Till the neighbors vow us all insane. 
Oh, the poignant, palpitant sense of joy 
In fire and smoke to the heart of a boy ! 



[48] 



WHO KNOWS? 



I 



LEFT a maiden in a far land 

Where the orange blossom blows. 
Did she weep perhaps at parting, 
Did she fear that our sweet-hearting 

All was drawing to a close? 

Ah, who knows, who knows? 

I left a maiden in that south land 
Where the pomegranate grows. 

Did she chide the fate, I wonder, 

That has cast us far asunder, 

Like the seeds a storm wind blows? 
Ah, who knows, who knows? 

I left a maiden in that sun land, 

Where the white-belled yucca grows. 

Can it be she, too, is yearning 

Even now for my returning 
To her land of sunset glows? 
Ah, who knows, who knows? 



[49 



ONE WAY 

J\ SUN-RAY once kissed the young lips of a rose, 

And she blushed to a burning red. 
He begged for another from dawn to day's close, 

And she gave him her heart instead. 

A maiden I know with rose-petaled lips 

That tempt one a kiss to impart; 
But in loving a man so easily slips, — 

Would it prove a wise path to her heart? 



I 50] 



MOTHER NIGHT 

All earth is her bosom given, 

Her hills my pillows are, 
Her mother face all heaven. 

Her eyes in every star. 

With soft warm winds she sings me 

A lullaby that chants, 
And the deep child sleep she brings me 

Falls from the kiss she grants. 



[51] 



AS THE WINDS WILL 



A 



LL heaven was clear that day, 
Of clearest springtime blue. 
My life laughed with the May, 
When love came true. 

But now, the year forestalled. 
All days are gray and dead; 

My life is winter thralled, 
For love hath fled. 



[52] 



ALMA MATER 



T( 



O thee, O California, 
To thee we pledge again. 
Great-hearted, kindly mother, 
Mother of stalwart men. 

As soldiers home from warfare 
Greet her who gave them birth, 

Who armed and bade them battle 
To prove their name and worth, 

So we return, O Mother, 

Bearing in gratitude 
Life's glory spoils to laurel 

Thy generous motherhood. 

One in our love and honor, 

One in our praise of thee, 
As one we stand together, 

Pledged for thy victory. 

O Mother of Wisdom, 

O Mother of Light, 
To-night we salute thee, 

To-morrow we fight. 

(Read at the reunion of the class of '99, Nov. 12, 1909) 
[53] 



THE FOUR WINDS 



I 



COME from the sapphire floes of the north, 
I shout as my whitening blasts are unfurled, 
I mantle the mountains till each tree stands forth 
A glory of silver and laces, empearled. 

Stern father am I, a law to the world. 

I come from the east, from the portals of dawn, 
I've swept the broad sea of its shadows of night, 
My word from its opaline Vv^ave crests is drawn, 
A chant of sea strength, a song of sea might. 
Thy brother am I, a bringer of light. 

In the dreamy luxuriant south I take birth. 
Its rich tangled lowlands by me are caressed; 
I fold to my heart vast love of the earth, 
I garner its meadow blooms close to my breast. 
Thy mother am I, a mother of rest. 

I come from the crimson-tongued embers of day, 
Of redolent pines and the prairie grass rife; 
I laugh and I sing on my passionate way, 
I glory in power, I glory in strife. 
Thy lover am I, the breath of thy life. 



[54] 



THE CHILD FROM THE MILL 

A AM tired, mother, tired. 

Oh, I ache for night's release 
From this whirr and grinding clatter — 

Night's starlit, dreamless peace. 

Is ever life so bitter 

To those who serve the right? 
Does ever moneyed justice 

End master in the fight? 

I am tired, mother, tired. 

Thy kiss shall numb my pain. 
Thine arm-enfolding slumber 

Shall right my world again. 



[55] 



"MINE THE BURDEN" 

X HE new Pope from his matins rose 
And sought that ancient garden close 
Where flowering earth for a lowly span 
Gives breath to the high-piled Vatican. 

His new attendants stood aside, 

Deeming they knew what thoughts must bide 

Within the mind that here made store 

Of all the wealth his ofhce bore; 

How he must glory in the sway 
That crowned him spirit sun of day, 
Keeper and king of heaven's key, 
Sovereign of Catholic empery. 

But see what sights his eye engage, 
As now he halts before a cage 
Where wilding birds of plumage rare 
A close-barred garden prison share. 

He calls a guard. "Throw ope the bars! 
Give them the freedom of the stars." 
Then, turning, wistfully walks away, 
And only a servant hears him say : 

[56I 



"MINE THE BURDEN" 

"I shrink not from Thy labor, Lord; 
Mine the burden, cross or sword. 
But not these birds, — I only am 
Prisoner in Thy Vatican." 



IS7l 



DESERT SLEEP 

From far across the desert a stray coyote calls, 
Its mate in echo answers, and then a stillness falls 
That is the soul of silence, the breathlessness of night, 
The shadow of a spirit that is the Infinite. 

A warm sage-scented wind breathes drowsily of rest, 
Strange golden-sanded vistas, half dream, grow manifest. 
Now comes a sense of vastness, of earth, of stars, of sea, 
And from the heart of heaven, night's benedicite. 



IS8] 



THE CALLING 

LiST! it is a wild dove calling, 
Calling from the camphor tree. 
Now from out the lower woodland 
Hear love's answer distantly. 

List! the winds of sprmg are calling, 
Whispering through the osier wands. 
Breathing words of Hfe and promise, 
And the soul of spring responds. 

Listen, love, my heart is calling, 
CalHng as that woodland dove. 
Has thy heart no word of answer 
To the song, "I love, I love" ? 



59 1 



THE MIRACLE 



I 



KNOW Thou canst," the cripple cried in prayer. 
"O God, Thou canst! Thy spirit everywhere 
In wondrous works Thy glory doth attest. 
In me a miracle make manifest ! 
One breath, O God, to consecrate this soul, 
One word, one touch to make this body whole." 

Unmoved in mystic silence God remained, 

And yet his faith the cripple still retained. 

"Thou canst, O God, I know Thou canst !" and then, 

To prove God's might and power unto men, 

That cripple rose and walked erect and well. 

So God through man had wrought his miracle. 



[60] 



LOVE IS A STAR 

X-iOVE is a star, 

Whose rosy beam 
Raises our eyes above this earth 
To glimpse a heaven of golden dream. 
Love is a star. 

Love is a rose, 

Whose petaled soul 
Opes to the breath of her sun love's kiss, 
Gives of her life and gives it whole. 

Love is a rose. 

Love is the dawn, 

Whose arrowed ray 
Pierces the shrouded veils of night, 
Rose-floods the world and leaves night day. 

Love is the dawn. 

Yet love is still more — 

Worlds more than this. 
Can dawn or the rose the infinite tell? 
Can even the star foretoken thy kiss? 

Nay, Love, thou art more! 



[6il 



THE MAD SINGER 



Oi 



'UT of the dusks of evening came 
A roadside beggar, blind and lame. 
Fumbling his cap, he paused before 
Three guests who dined by a tavern door, 
Men full blessed of fortune's dower, 

Masters of wealth, of name, of power. 
Now, why that beggar, I can't surmise, 
Fixed just these three with his sightless eyes. 
He waited their silence. Then in strong 
And piercing voice began this song : 

"Hear me, stranger, hear me sing, 
Happy in my suffering. 
Blind am I and yet I see 
The roots of all thy poverty. 

" Knowest thou not that naught thou art 
But pulsing blood in thy brother'' s heart ? 
Give that blood. The world hath need 
OJ flowers from thy heart's red seed. 

"Give thy cloak and rise new dressed 
In robes that poverty hath blessed. 
Give thyself, thy heart, thy soul, 
And live the life of all men, whole. 
[62] 



THE MAD SINGER 

"Seest thou not that man to live 
Must often die ? to have, must give ? 
Hear me, stranger, hear me sing. 
And help this world's dark suffering. '' 

"A madman's song! Was ever heard," 
Said one rich man, "such words absurd ? " 
"The wanton fool!" another cried; 
"Were wild words truth, yet still he lied. 
Here, keeper, put this vagrant out! 
Shall meals be spoiled by a crazy lout?" 
Beaten and cursed and set upon, 
Adown the night the beggar's gone. 

'Tis strange, but now their evening meat 
Has lost all taste, their wine its sweet. 
Ease and joy had taken flight 
With a wandering clown. And as that night 
Each man went home beneath the moon. 
He heard in the wind that beggar loon — 
Wild words that echoing burned his brain, 
Ever rewaihng in weird refrain: 

"Hear me, stranger, hear me sing. 
And help this world's dark suffering. 
Blind am I and yet I see 
The root of all thy poverty.'* 

[63] 



THE WORLD IN ITS BLINDNESS 

1. HE blind world sees him pass, 

Weak and wan and ill; 
It sees the pain he has, 
Knows not his inner will. 

It sees but the spirit's mesh. 
Its dark and cankerous dole, 

Knows not that this scarred flesh 
Marks the triumph of a soul. 



[64] 



THE ORIENT DAWN'S FIRST SHADOW 

1 HE orient dawn's first shadow 

Has rimmed the desert sky, 
And tides of roseate amber 
Now deepen, fade, and die. 

The lark has left the mesa 

And ripples out his song, 
A mad ecstatic greeting, 

Full-throated, clear, and strong. 

The hills in drowsy twihght 

Are fairy hills of dream, 
Where sprites and elves are dancing 

In day's fast fading beam. 

High stands the jeweled Corona, 

Haloed at heaven's crest. 
While Scorpio, ruby gleaming. 

Wheels slowly to the west. 

The dawn, the stars, the mountain, 
Each speaks the god- will true; 

And ever their soul of beauty 
Quickens my thought to you. 

[65] 



WORK! 

W ORK ! though no master bless thee 
With the gold of a great reward. 

Work ! though the yoke oppress thee 
And thy true worth be ignored. 

For in work lies thy life's salvation, 
And thy pain shall pass away 

In the joy of a god's creation, 
In the peace of a workman's day. 



[66 



TOO BRIEF THE DAY 

{Upon the death of a child) 



L, 



^IKE to a tear of purest dew 
Born to a petaled blossom, 
For one brief day, dear spirit, you 
Lay nestled on my bosom. 

And, like that pearl, too fair to stay, 
Too frail for life's noon hour. 

The great sun bore your soul away — 
And left this drooping flower. 



[67I 



UNCROWNED DAYS 

1 HELD love's jewel within my hand, 
Its pricelessness was absolute. 

Then envious fate an ambush planned, 
And robbed and left me destitute. 

Yet rich am I in poverty, 

My wooden cup a goblet gold, 

These beggar raiments that you see 
No servile beggar soul enfold. 

For still her heart is all my own, 
And though possession be denied, 

In thought and love of her alone 
My uncrowned days are justified. 



[68] 



FELLOW FAITH 

X HEY cried his shame upon the public street, 
Their fellowman who had a trust betrayed. 
Alone he stood before the judgment seat 
And heard their verdict, that his Hfe unmade. 
All save one. One there was who kept 
A faith beyond the crime, who heard and wept. 

Ten years the branding stripes burned deep their shame. 
Crushed out his faith in man and God. The end, 
Revenge and anarchy. Then forth he came, 
To find at prison door that one true friend; 
And lo! this faith of one gave back again 
A sin-purged soul to God, a man to men. 



[69] 



EARTH'S BLOSSOMS DIE 

J. HE bubble on the fountain breaks, 

Each flower fades and dies; 
The sable night too soon o'ertakes 

The gold of westering skies. 

E'en so thy love. I thought, dear heart, 
'Twas wrought of finer breath, 

Contrived of some immortal art 
Beyond the grasp of death. 

And still the sunlit bubbles break. 

In dust earth's blossoms lie ; 
Yet why, O God, must love forsake 

The arms of love and die ! 



[70I 



IN GOD'S WINE PRESS 

-/xLONE she left her low Carpathian hills, 

Where tyrant law its tyrant wrong fulfills, 

Where feudal taxes and the dreaded knout 

Combine to crush the peasant life blood out; 

As she in autumn crushed the purple grape, 

Leaving no orb, no cluster to escape 

The naked feet in the dark-stained vats. For years 

Had she the gnarled vines pruned; with hopes and fears 

Had hoarded till the tollgate pittance grew 

Sufficient, — a copper purse that would, she knew, 

Free her at last, bear her beyond the sea 

Unto her life's one goal of liberty. 

They passed her rudely with a rabble horde 

Of babel-tongued companions. Without a word 

She sat and saw her visioned bliss 

In freedom's million-mouthed metropolis. 

But honest labor for an honest hand 

She asked of all this treasure-yielding land; 

Merely the chance, her rightful opportunity. 

To sing, to work, to live in liberty. 

But tongue was halting and her speech came thick, 

Her peasant brain foresaw no undertrick 

[71] 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

When smooth- voiced sons of liberty approached 
And of a golden store of earning broached. 
For she was deep of bosom, good to see, 
With her peasant eyes of childish purity. 

They led her through a land, broad, rich, and fair, 
Unto a city's red-lamped depths, and there 
They left her to — Ah, God! the Ufe of shame 
Unspeakable. Ensnared, she soon became 
Enmanacled by crime, without redress, 
Downthrust and crushed in life's ensanguined press 
Crushed as 'neath the naked feet of God, 
Until her soul's blood, oozing, stained the sod 
Of all the land with shame, she fell so low. 

Crushed by life? by fate? by God? Ah, no! 
By us, her fellowmen, so smug and free 
Within our vaunted land of liberty. 



l72] 



THE LIFE-JOY 



Oh 



the breath of life is good! 
This sun and air I drink, 
These hills I look upon, 

These stars that quivering sink 
Into the day that's gone, 

They stir the laggard blood 
With breath of brotherhood, 
And hfe, I cry, is good! 
Is good! 



I 73] 



SONGS OF YOSEMITE 



A MASTER CALLS 

The Merced River 

V ROM the proud granite crests of the world, 

Where winter's drift silver is furled, 

The sun grants me being. 

My frozen soul freeing, — 
A watersprite valleyward hurled. 

And straightway I gather new might. 
As I race in tempestuous flight, 

Ceaselessly pouring 

A thunderous roaring 
That echoes through day and through night; 

Now over the glacier-carved walls, 
From heights that my wild soul enthralls, 
In mid air outleaping, 
With cloud mists outsweeping. 
And rainbows that halo my falls. 

The lush mountain meadows I lave, 
Their emerald with crystal I pave, 

As laughingly swirluig 

I'm fretting and purling 
Their marge with my white lapping wave. 

[77I 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

On, on through a granite-walled gorge, 
In anger its boulders I scourge, 

Now grinding and churning 

Its bed at my turning, 
I lash and I leap and I surge. 

What spirit impetuous fills 

My wild being? What god ever wills 

This crashing and bounding, 

This endless resounding, 
That rings through the great granite hills? 

Ever down to an unknown home. 
From heavens unknown I come. 

Ah, why this mad seething, 

Eternally wreathing 
These flowers of silvery foam? 

Why I go, what I am or shall be? 
For a river there's naught but the sea. 

Some master is calling, 

And I, ever falUng, 
Know only my soul would be free. 



[78] 



CLOUD MIST 

Yosemite Falls 

A BURST of molten silver, born 

Of mountain snow, 
That bears the beauty of the morn 

Within its flow. 

A wave of streaming white that falls, 

And, falling, flings 
Against the gray old granite walls 

Its silver wings. 

A whitened fire from out the sky, 

Whose arrowed strands 
In sunlight gleam and flash and die, 

Like earth-hurled brands. 

A rush, as surges of the sea, 

That, dashing, wakes 
Dull echoes of a musketry 

Where'er it breaks. 

A river turned to cloud mist, blown 

By every breath, 
Yet coming to its crystal own. 

After death. 

[79I 



WILD WATERS 

Nevada Falls 

J_yIKE outburst volcanic 

Of forces titanic 
She flings her white storm flood far forth on the air; 

A body stupendous, 

Some wild thing tremendous, 
That leaps like a beast from its high mountain lair. 

In white anger breaking, 

Her drenched mane outshaking, 
She roars as she pours down a thunder cloud doom ; 

A furious leaping. 

Her flanks ever steeping 
With froth of her spray drift, enfanged with her spume. 

Beneath, a wild boiling, 

BHnd surging and roiling. 
Mad glory of power, mad glory of might; 

Wild frenzy of forces 

Fresh burst from their sources. 
White blood of the mountains in unbridled flight. 



l8o] 



TRAIL SONG 

Then it's ho! for the pack 

On the dusty track 
And ho ! for the roadside rills. 

A song for the trail 

Through gorge and swale, 
That leads to the giant hills. 

Up ! Storm the heights 

Where first dawn lights 
And vales where nothing stills 

The thundering call 

Of stream and fall 
In the heart of the giant hills. 

Breathe deep their air 

So clear and rare, 
Breathe deep the joy that thrills. 

Though muscles ache, 

No steep forsake, — 
There's strength in the giant hills. 

And oh! the rest 

On the mountain's crest 

When night the day fulfills. 
Beneath a pine, 
Where great stars shine, 

Asleep in the giant hills. 
I8il 



CHILDREN OF THE SHADOW 

Then up and sing 

Till rock-walls ring 
And echo heaven fills! 

A wild heigh-ho 

To the vale below ! 
Life sings in the giant hills! 



[82] 



SHADOWED SPLENDOR 

Mirror Lake 

/x REACH of shadowed splendor in the silence of 
the dawn, 

Of purity transcendent, 

Holding earth and heaven pendant 
Within a mystic mirror as breathless as the morn. 

Vision of mountain beauty, deep-shadowed, motionless, 

A jewel in granite setting, 

A soul in dream forgetting 
Its power of enchantment, its depths of loveliness; 

Spirit of sleeping waters, how like man's soul thou art! 

Touched of earth about thee, 

Colored of Hfe without thee, 
Yet holding this gleam of heaven within thine inner heart. 



[83I 



SPIRIT HEIGHTS 

The Valley Walls by Moonlight 

X 00 great, too grand in fearful majesty, 
These valley walls that shut the heavens out. 
They crush with heartless over-strength and flout 
The pettiness of man's mortaHty; 

Immense, colossal, vast, 

Rude mountain strength upmassed. 
Within their scarred and furrowed front is writ 
That life of brutal strength which knows no law 
Beyond a greater force, — Time's storms that split 
The heart of stone, or ledge and crevice gnaw — 

A tale of heartless strife, 

This world's material life. 

So before the all-revealing light of day 
They stand. But now day fades, with failing breath 
Day dies; and night shrouds all with glooms of death, 
Blots out these signs of strife in death's kind way, 

And final word now says 

In awful silences. 
But lo, a flood of silver lucence creeps 
A-down the night and bodies forth in light. 
From source unseen, these self-same valley steeps; 
Transmutes each granite cHff to marble height, 

And purges with its kiss 

Each grim stained precipice. 
[84] 



SPIRIT HEIGHTS 

The same in massive shape and mighty line 
And towering form of splendent majesty 
They stand, yet veiled in tides of mystery — 
Pale tides that bathe in their ethereal wine 

Each starry-arrased edge, 

Each pine-enshadowed ledge. 
Great spirit masses now they gently fade, 
Form on form. With all God's world in tune 
They rest, softened, silvered, overlaid 
With vestal raiments of the virgin moon; 

Drenched in a silence white 

And pure as their own hght. 

O life divine! O soul of the finer soul ! 
What if, at last, when night's great shadow falls. 
Thou shouldst stand forth like yonder spirit walls. 
The truth of spirit shining through the corporal whole, 

In every line and shelf 

Thyself and not thyself; 
The worn stained vesture of this world, unseen 
In the truer light that, from some distant sphere, 
Shall bare the soul from all its flesh terrene. 
And let, at last, in light divine appear 

The deathless personality, — 

Thyself, thy soul now free 

In simple spirit majesty. 



[8S1 



SEED DRIFT 



WEALTH 



Gi 



riVE of thyself. Man's wealth depends, 
Not on the pence he holds and hoards, 
Not on the gift he well affords, 
But on the spirit-gold he spends. 



THE BREAD AND THE WINE 

VJOD took the gleaming goblet of the day 
And filled it with the star-shine wine of night ; 
Man drank of beauty's sacramental light, 

Saw Hfe in all, and found new words to pray. 



[89] 



NOW 

W OULDST thou the master of time's ages be, 
Live now. Put all thy soul into the act 
Of this one moment — now. With life compact, 
For thee this instant means eternity. 



CHRISTMAS STARS 



T, 



HE Christmas stars are dancing, 

A-thrill with ecstasy. 
A world-joy all entrancing, 
Christ-love men's lives enhancing 

Uplifts humanity: 
And the Christmas stars are dancing, 

A-thrill with ecstasy. 



I90I 



THE LEAVEN 

J_yABOR is thy daily bread, 

And love the needed leaven 
That through the heavy years is spread, 

To lift thy life to heaven. 



THE SPARK 

J_-/IKE flint the world to him remained, 
But his will was tempered steel. 

And in life's forging fires he gained 
The joy that masters feel. 



[91I 



A WOMAN TO HER HAND-MIRROR 

{Suggested by a French song of the 14th century) 



Ai 



.MI — tell me — am I fair? 

Youth were wont in other days 
These eyes, these lips, this brow to praise, 

And all this wealth of golden hair. 
Yet now — ah, tell me, am I fair? 



THE MASSES 

A HEIR dull ears hear the truth in vain, 
Their minds in mists are furled; 
But speak unto the hearts of men 
And thou shalt move the world. 



[92I 



SONG-BIRTH 



A 



VAGRANT phantom caught, 
Its gossamer soul a thought 

That glows with meaning marvelous; 
Glows until it wakes 
In haloed light and takes 

New form and beauty luminous. 
Wild seed of fancy's throng, 
It bursts a flowering song. 



A WOMAN SPEAKS 

J. OFFER, Fate, my all to thee. 

This name, these jewels, great property. 

And beg one boon — no other. 
Life's final goal and joy for me 
Lies in this heart-born hope to be 

A lover and a mother. 



I93] 



VISION 

JL HE fibre of man's life is wrought 

In what he strives to see, 
In image of his highest thought: — 
Just so his God shall be. 



THE MARTYR 

X HE while they bound his arms he calmly said, 
"Alive a man hath little strength, but dead. 
The might of millions. Wait! By this decree 
Thy victor — not thy victim — I shall be! " 



94] 



MATERNITY 

^HE felt the soft warm hands' caress, 

The lips in hunger steal, 
And knew a love and tenderness 

That man can never feel. 



THE LIFE-LOVE 



I 



BOW beneath a blood-stained rod, 
In bitter anguish cry, 
And yet, for love of life, O God, 
Behold, I would not die! 



[9Sl 



FROM THE SHADOW 

iriE who suffers sees a world 

Beyond his fellows' ken, 
As one from some dark cave of earth 

Sees stars unseen by men. 



NO 



"N 



O!" he said, and none then knew 
The sacrifice it meant, 
Nor how a soul to greatness grew 
Through this relinquishment. 



96 



O ^OW, MY HEART 



Strange hungry shadows run 
Gray ghosts my path along; 

And yet, my day's not done — 
Be strong, my heart, be strong I 

Strange night is creeping down, 
Darkening wave on wave. 

Will dawn these shadows crown? 

O now, my heart, be brave, 

Be brave ! 



DAWN 

i HE silent, slumbering world lies dark entombed by 
night, 
Yet morn arises from that tomb in beauty rife. 
So dawns another day, so dawns another life : 

Out of the dusks of this shall come the Greater Light. 



I97I 



JUN 15 1911 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



|H^ 15 



1911 




LlbHflRY OF CONGRESS 

lilillilllliiitiiiiii . 

015 873 922 7 • 



